GREEN COURT IN THE

ISLANDS

Facts about the Philippines

• Archipelago of 7,107 islands

• Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao

• Total population in 2007 was 88.57 million

Bantayan Group of Islands, Petitioner

• Northwestern portion of Cebu in the Visayas

• Declared as a protected area

• Joined by residents, taxpayers and citizens

• with an enforceable “right to a healthful and balanced ecology for the protection of the natural and national patrimony”.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Officers, Respondents

• Patrimonial malpractice• Failure to enforce the National Integrated

Protected Areas System Act of 1992 (NIPAS Law), the Water Code (PD 1067) and laws that delineate the recreation and salvage zone.

• Failure to promulgate a Management Plan

• Patrimonial malpractice• Failure to enforce the National Integrated

Protected Areas System Act of 1992 (NIPAS Law), the Water Code (PD 1067) and laws that delineate the recreation and salvage zone.

• Failure to promulgate a Management Plan

Application for temporary restraining order

• To prohibit the Department of Environment and Natural Resources from issuing Environmental Compliance Certificates

• Denied• “Causal relation between the damage

to plaintiff and the acts of complained of requires a hearing on the merits”

• Ocular inspection was considered

The ocular inspection on May 18, 2009The ocular inspection on May 18, 2009

• Santa Fe, Bantayan Island• List of Individuals/Companies With

Structures Within the Easement Zone• Pictures of the inspected sites, which

were beach resorts to capture the conditions outside the establishments vis-à-vis the seashore

PD 1067 - The Water Code of the Philippines

“The banks of rivers and streams and the shores . . . throughout their entire length and within a zone of 3 meters in urban

areas, 20 meters in agricultural areas and 40 meters in forest areas, along their

margins subject to the easement of public use . . . of recreation, navigation, floatage,

fishing and salvage.”

Writ of preliminary mandatory injunction was granted.

• No Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases yet.

• Public respondents enjoined from processing and approving applications for Environmental Compliance Certificates to constructions and projects in Bantayan Island.

• To clear the 20-meter margin of the seashores in the beach resorts within 60 days

• To conduct inspection sites of the shores around the Island

• To document structures or constructions that violate the 20-meter easement zone

• To submit the pertinent Report

Partial judgment with pictures

Intervention was denied.

• No legal interest • Issue on whether the environmental

laws in Bantayan Island have been enforced, a matter addressed only to public respondents.

• Ruling in MMDA, et. al. vs. Concerned Residents of Manila Bay, et. al., G.R. 171947, December 18, 2008

Order became final.

• Department of Environment and Natural Resources did not question the order

• Readiness to fulfill responsibility• Writ of execution was issued

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

JUDGE MARILYN LAGURA-YAPRegional Trial Court

Branch 28, Mandaue CityPhilippines

judgeyap@yahoo.com